


Coming Out

by incogniteau



Series: Natasha Romanoff Bingo Fills [1]
Category: Black Widow (Comics), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Clint Barton Is a Good Bro, Mild Language, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:48:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25010377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incogniteau/pseuds/incogniteau
Summary: Nat comes out as trans to his friend and SHIELD partner, Clint, not in the way he'd planned.
Relationships: Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov
Series: Natasha Romanoff Bingo Fills [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1943983
Kudos: 15
Collections: Natasha Bingo





	Coming Out

Just in time for Pride!

Square: Trans Natasha

* * *

“Clint, I’m a man!”

Nat hadn’t been exactly planning to come out to his best friend while they were sparring, but oftentimes, it was much easier to discuss difficult things with someone while busy involved with another activity. Perhaps it was not having to look the person directly in the face or not having their total focus on you specifically that made it a tiny bit less terrifying.

Clint stops midway through a left jab, but he doesn’t let down his guard. At this point, he doesn’t know whether Nat is just saying this to throw him off his game. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d done that to each other; hell, last week he’d tried to throw Nat for a loop by saying Laura wanted him to install a sex swing. He doesn’t remember it working though.

“What now?” Clint drops his fists, unsure of what he’s heard, and relaxes his stance once he realizes the truth of the statement, and Nat isn’t going to try and kick his ass.

Nat stares at Clint’s boots. “I’m a man; I’m…trans.”

Silence stretches between them for a moment, but to Nat, it’s a deafening roar of white noise that lasts years, and he can’t take it.

“I’m sorry; I - I shouldn’t have said anything.” Nat quickly spins on his heel to sprint away from his confession and his partner’s quietness, but a hand lightly grabs his forearm.

“Wait, Nat, I’m not angry or anything like that; I’m just…confused, and I - I don’t really know what to say yet.” Clint notices Nat won’t meet his eyes. “Can you look at me, please?”

Nat raises his eyes and releases the breath he didn’t know he’s been holding in a long sigh of relief. Clint’s eyes are not angry or hard; they’re kind and soft and say, “I want to understand.”

“Come on; let’s sit on one of the benches,” Clint suggests.

The two sit, and Nat notices Clint doesn’t go out of his way to create any more distance between them than he normally would. That small act of consistency offers him comfort that he didn’t just set fire to their entire friendship to watch it reduced to a pile of figurative ashes.

“When did you first start feeling this way?”

“Truly for as long as I can remember; certainly during my time in the Red Room. I didn’t mind the ballet, but I hated the tutus and didn’t want to be the one being caught and held up and spun. I wanted to catch and spin.” Nat smiles ruefully. “But Russia isn’t exactly known for their openness towards people like me. And I really could just see the headmistress being so understanding,” he says sarcasm woven in his voice.

“So you kept it all in? Did anybody know?”

“No, no way. Couldn’t risk it.”

“Fuck,” Clint says after a beat. “I can’t imagine feeling like I have to walk around wearing, like, a costume, I guess, all the time. Well, I do don a costume at times, but…y’know what I mean.”

“That’s a way to put it. You feel like a man, right?”

“Most of the time.”

Nat chuckles slightly, appreciating the slight brevity Clint lends to the conversation.

“Ok, well, imagine the costume you had to wear was a princess dress.”

“I could rock that.”

Nat gives Clint a look. “Ok, ok, yeah, I understand what you’re getting at.”

Clint looks at his friend. “I’m not gonna pretend I know all the ins and outs of what to do or say or everything like that, so if I refer to you a way you don’t prefer, or I say something you don’t like, you’re gonna have to call me out on it. I can’t correct myself if I don’t know.”

“Clint, I always call you on your bullshit, regardless of the subject matter.”

Clint lets out a sharp, raspy laugh. “This is true. Keep doing what you’re doing.”

“What do you think Phil is going to say?”

“Phil will be cool about it; he’ll probably be like me - not quite sure how to navigate everything at first, so some friendly correction might be required, but he’ll heed it.”

“And Fury?”

“Hell, Fury ain’t going to care as long as you just keep doing your job. But he’ll go to bat for you if you run into any problems, you know that. And you can always come to me; the promise to break legs if need be still stands."

Nat gives a small smile. “Thanks, Clint.”

“Alright,” Clint says slapping Nat’s knee before standing up. “We’d better hit the showers and clean up a bit.”

The two begin to make their way to the locker room. “Hey,” Clint says suddenly. “What am I supposed to call you now? Like, what’s your new name?”

Nat looks at him and smiles. “I think I’ll be keeping the name Nat. It’s a unisex name, and I like it. I like the origin of it.”

“Oh yeah?” Clint prompts him to explain.

“I’d been here at SHIELD for about two weeks, still a scared kid.”

“You sure didn’t seem like it; you were a tough kid,” Clint interjects.

“An act; fake it ’til you make it, right? But you brought a pizza for us for lunch one day and sat down and said, ‘So, Nat, what d’you think so far?’ And it wasn’t just a question thrown out there; you really wanted to know what _I_ thought. Right off the get go, you carried on real conversations with me; it didn’t matter I was a kid and a former enemy. And it was the first time anybody had ever given me a nickname, which I took to mean you were comfortable with me, and we were moving beyond mentor and mentee to friends. It really made me relax into all of this, like this was my place to be. So, yeah, I like the name Nat; I’ll be keeping it.”

Clint grins, claps a hand on his friend’s shoulder, and guides them towards the mens’ locker room.


End file.
